Loved through loss: a fan’s experience at Velocity Fest 2026
Everyone who walks into a music festival is carrying something — from the visible festival essentials like sunscreen to the invisible additions like anxiety, depression, or shame. When Alia (an alias) came to Velocity Fest, she entered the festival grounds carrying raw grief.
Velocity Festival 2026 featured a diverse array of headliners including Creed, Shinedown, and Carrie Underwood. HeartSupport was on the grounds in Dyersville, Iowa for the three-day fest. That’s where our team of volunteers met Alia.
The HeartSupport table with lyric temporary tattoos at Velocity Festival 2026
Alia’s husband had been killed just days before the festival. She’d debated whether it was worth still going to the festival at all. Eventually, she decided she would go, thinking, That’s what he would have wanted.
Courageously, she rallied to go by herself. Fortunately, she didn’t have to. Alia’s sister traveled last minute to attend the festival with her so that she wouldn’t be alone in her grief. The two entered the festival together, ready to stand and soak in some music in the middle of the hurricane of loss.
They spotted the HeartSupport tent once they were on festival grounds. Curious, Alia came over, noticing the red tiles on the Support Wall: invitations to open up.
She could have chosen to walk away, keeping the fresh grief she was feeling to herself. Instead, she had the courage to open up, taking a dry erase marker to write on the tile honest words about her husband’s death.
Alia left the Support Wall to enjoy the music festival. Her words stayed behind.
Quickly, other attendees started answering them, grabbing the gray tiles designed for response. They saw Alia’s heartbreaking story of loss and responded with the most fundamental things someone who is grieving needs to hear:
Your grief is felt.
You are loved.
You are enough.
Fans filled every single spot for responding to Alia. When she came back by the booth, she was able to see that even after such devastating loss, she truly wasn’t alone. She had her sister with her. And she had a whole festival full of people who were willing to take the time to say that her pain mattered.
Many others also opened up on the Support Wall at Velocity Fest, sharing about everything from combat PTSD to relationship pain. Over a hundred fans chose to show up with support, thoughtfully pouring their own hearts out in response to the vulnerability of those who opened up.
Fans filling the Support Wall at Velocity Fest
Even if Alia had been the only person who opened up on the Wall, it would have been worth setting it up. HeartSupport’s presence at festivals is for people exactly like her: people who walk in carrying something heavy and find, to their surprise, that there are so many others willing to help them carry the weight.
The only reason the Support Wall was there for Alia that day was because of generous donors who chose to put their funds behind real support for a grieving music fan they’d never meet. You can be one of those donors to help us get to the next fest! Will you give what you can today?
Another real music fan’s courageous words opening up and a peer’s response
